Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider Series #8)

Julie Just

Alex Rider's eighth adventure is one of his most ingenious
—The New York Times

VOYA - Leah J. Sparks

In this action-packed latest installment of Horowitz's popular Alex Rider series, the reluctant teen spy is again drawn into the services of MI6. In return for the agency nixing a reporter's would-be expose of Alex's life, he agrees to infiltrate the office of the director of Greenfields, a secretive genetic engineering company, during a class trip to the company's headquarters. Although he succeeds and vows to return to school and a normal life, Alex's curiosity gets the better of him and he is soon embroiled in yet another outrageous turn of events that includes being kidnapped and whisked off to Kenya to face the latest in a string of diabolical madmen bent on destroying the world. As in the last few series novels, Horowitz sacrifices character development for action, with little dialogue and only token appearances by supporting players such as Jack Starbright, Smithers, and Sabina Pleasure. In their place, he packs in enough explosions, fistfights, poisonous creatures, fires, and deadly weapons to ensure that middle and high school boys—and more than a few girls—will be clamoring for Alex's latest adventure. Each installment is more reminiscent of the James Bond films than the last, and one wonders if television and film writer Horowitz had one eye on his computer screen and one eye on the silver screen when drafting the latest Rider story. Although formulaic, the novel is cut from the same successful mold as its predecessors and will no doubt fly off library shelves with its appealing hero, exotic settings, and high-octane action. Reviewer: Leah J. Sparks

School Library Journal

Gr 6–10—Alex Rider is only 14, but that hasn't stopped MI6, the British espionage organization, from recruiting him for dangerous missions. Here, Alex is enlisted in a seemingly quick and easy mission of downloading computer data while on a school trip to a lab immersed in the genetic engineering of plants. While there, he discovers a sinister plot involving a criminal turned preacher and philanthropist. As in the earlier installments, the book is chock-full of excitement and suspense from the first page to the last. It starts with a bomb at a nuclear plant in India, and along the way there is a charity black-tie card game, poison needles, car crashes, bullets, and exploding gel pens. Most of the backstory is explained, so no prior knowledge of the earlier books is necessary. Great for reluctant readers.—Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO

Booklist

[Horowitz] knows how to pace a thriller and delivers one exciting scene after another.